1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cutter assembly of a strand cutting machine in which a strand of resin is cut by a fixed cutter member and a rotary cutter member as the strand is supplied to the fixed cutter member. This invention relates also to a resin material cutting assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional strand cutting machine, a strand of cooled and dewatered resin is drawn over a fixed cutter member and is then cut into pellets as the fixed cutter member coacts with a rotary cutter member. As shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings, the rotary cutter member 2 is mounted on a rotary shaft 4 parallel to a supply-side end surface 1a of the fixed cutter member 1, and the rotary cutter member 2 has along its outer periphery a sawtoothed blade assembly with a plurality of cutting edges 2 each having an inner surface at an angle of about 20 degrees.
However, in such conventional technology, when a strand is cut by the rotary cutter member, the thus cut pellets can become jammed between the teeth of the sawtoothed blade assembly so that they get carried around, as the sawtoothed blade assembly makes a complete rotation, and hence are recut into smaller pellets which are not of standard size or they can be discharged from a portion other than a predetermined discharge position, thus making such portion dirty.
Further, with this conventional technology, when the blade is worn out, the whole rotary cutter member must be removed and polished, which is laborious and time-consuming; if it is polished repeatedly, the rotary cutter member must be exchanged with a new one, which is expensive.
Moreover, with this conventional technology, since a strand is cut by being smashed by the rotary cutter member, the cut ends of individual pellets have fine white splits, which gives them an unsightly appearance, so that the quality of pellets is lowered. Also, a considerably large sound is produced during cutting, thus causing noise pollution.